In January 2023, Taki Kitamura, an acclaimed Japanese-American tattoo artist, and his wife, Molly, painted the entrance to Realm’s Whiskey Hotel, transforming the utilitarian space into a phantasmagorical scene that blends Eastern and Western iconography with expansive undersea creatures, small oceanic life forms and whimsical flourishes throughout. Created over a three-week period and rarely seen by anyone outside of the Realm team, Taki’s mural is a colorful counterpoint to the stainless steel tanks, scaffolding, roll-up doors, electricity panels and compressor tanks that otherwise occupy the space.
We met Taki in 2019 when he was a panelist for an exhibition at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum titled Tattoos in Japanese Prints. An artist who apprenticed under the legendary Japanese tattoo master, Horiyoshi III and counts American tattoo pioneer Ed Hardy as a mentor, Taki is an expert in the art of Japanese woodblock prints depicting intricately tattooed heroes of myth and history. He’s written and produced numerous books on tattoo art, artists and history, and also owns State of Grace, a tattoo shop specializing in traditional Japanese tattooing. After seeing Taki speak at the museum we were intrigued, and invited him to the winery. During his visit he got a deep sense of what Realm is trying to achieve and introduced us to the concept of shokunin, a Japanese term that describes a master craftsperson devoted to one profession or task.
Taki: “Shokunin are artisans doing something that’s technically deemed working class, such as making a sword, but because of their devotion and craftsmanship it becomes high art. The people who make wine could very well be considered shokunin. It certainly can and should be a lifelong obsession.”
We kept in touch with Taki, commissioning a painting by him that hangs at the winery, and were thrilled when he and Molly agreed to take on the mural project. He’d worked on several murals with friends and colleagues and had recently completed one in San Jose’s Japantown.
Taki: “I thought maybe Scott had seen that and contacted me, but I think it was just this weird cosmic kind of thing. I have a lot of respect for Scott and Realm and the way they think about design and artistry and how that relates to wine. It’s nice to be around people who respect the history and tradition of tattoo culture the way Realm does. It feels like they get it.”
Before picking up a paintbrush, Taki put together a mood book of ideas and illustrations. He was particularly struck by Realm’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giants sculpture, which sits just outside the Whiskey Hotel. Much of Taki’s work, be it tattoos, murals or paintings, takes its inspiration from Japan’s Edo period, 1603-1867. This was a time of relative peace and prosperity in the country, when the arts, including woodblock prints, were flourishing.
Taki: “Traditional Japanese tattooing is based on artwork created during that period, especially the late 1700s to mid-1800s, when artists like Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the legendary Japanese engraver, were working. There was so much amazing art created then, and I feel a sense of kinship. I love using this reference because it immediately connects me to that tradition.”
Taki was also inspired by the atmosphere of the space itself, which to him felt like an underwater cave. That’s why the mural is populated with oceanic imagery, including a giant whale and shark, jellyfish, octopus, crabs, etc. – imagery that can also be found in traditional Japanese tattoos. Finally, Taki also sought to represent both Eastern and Western sensibilities, not only because he is Japanese-American but because he sees parallels between the two artistic traditions and mythologies. On opposing roll-up doors are a Japanese samurai with echoes of the archangel Saint Michael and an underwater female Birth of Venus image wielding a Japanese dagger.
Taki: “There’s tradition here, but also a playing with tradition. Which is like Realm. They want to innovate and do new things while still keeping one foot firmly planted in tradition. That’s what we try to do also. And we also made sure to be playful and have a lot of fun. Ever since childhood, I’ve been fascinated with the ocean. I wanted this to have that feeling of when a kid sees a tide pool for the first time. I love stuff like that.”
If you’ve been in a winery cave, you know there aren’t a lot of right angles or flat surfaces. One of Taki’s challenges was to translate his images onto an undulating space of curved facades. The various textures of the walls, doors and other elements were also a challenge; it wasn’t like painting a flat mural on the side of a building.
Taki: “I'm a tattoo artist, so I'm used to dealing with different clients’ shape, skin type, things like that. Much like a winemaker, who must adapt to each vintage and situation. I knew that for the big walls I wanted large images that would really stand out and have an impact. It’s like when we tattoo a Japanese back piece, which is the largest space on your body. You want to see it from across the room. So that was the concept behind the large shark and whale images. And also, because of the wall’s rough texture, they had to be very simple.”
After priming the porous, gunite-textured walls and ceiling of the cave with countless gallons of a calming ocean-blue paint, Taki and Molly were ready to tackle the illustrations. Taki explains that often muralists will begin by putting a line drawing on a projector and projecting it onto the wall in order to do an outline of the image. But the shape and length of the cave made that technique impossible.
Taki: “So we had someone on a scissor lift, and I used a laser pointer to create the base outlines of the whale and shark. It worked really well, but for the smaller images, we just had to wing it.”
After three weeks and many hours spent in contorted positions on their feet, backs, stomachs and sides – dressed in Ebay-procured Dickies jumpsuits – Taki and Molly completed their masterpiece. Today, entering the cave is to be immersed in their mural and vision, to find layers of story and meaning in the East/West imagery, and to be delighted at every turn with the unexpected, often quirky embellishments. As Taki looks back at the time at Realm – and a project they remember with fondness – he is struck again by the parallels between winegrowing, tattoo art and Realm.
Taki: “I remember telling colleagues we were doing a mural for a winery, and they’d say, ‘oh, in the tasting room?’ They immediately assumed it was for the public. But I’m like, ‘no, no, you don't understand. It’s for their employees.’ Like in any art studio tattoo shop, happy artists are good artists and vice versa. The fact that Realm cares enough to give the people making the wine this kind of environment really matters on a spiritual level. And on the tangible physical level, I think how you do one thing is how you do everything. They call it the Realm Way, and we definitely subscribe to that. And I think people in our field do too. A lot of tattoo artists are always trying to be better, but also, as in wine, working with unique situations each time.”
